Hey. Having a kind of frustrating day. I really want to be working on my mystery deadline, but I am having printer issues. I have to keep walking away from it because I am so annoyed! I just want to run a dang cleaning utility and it seems to be impossible. I am trying to uninstall and reinstall the driver and ... welll. grr. You don't need to hear me complain about this. It will get figured out, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, it is too hot ( even for me) to garden today and designing and gardening are the only things I really feel like doing. So I went out for a bit to try and relax and at least get some Trader Joe's shopping done.

As I was walking up to the store, I saw a a stiking older mature woman. I sense that she is older than she looks. Classy, elegant woman. She was wearing crisp black capris, crisp fitted white oxford. Great black patent leather shoes with a peep toe and a stacked heel- really cool and hip shoes, but still classic. She looked like she had just gotten her hair styled- but a loose flippy mid-length effortless type of style. And a sweet calm face. And the best accessory of all: a genuine smile.

We caught each other's eye, smiling, and I just wanted to say "Who are you? !" We were walking toward each other and she said to me, "I love your hairstyle!" I wish I had said more, but I simply said thank you . >sigh<

Back to shopping. They were out of my favorite thing: frozen dark sweet cherries. Which I eat everyday with Greek yogurt. YUM. I asked one of the worker guys and he said they are going to be replacing them with frozen Bing cherries. Permanently replacing them. I hope I love those Bing cherries, man.

I feel like a good girl when I shop at Trader Joe's because I usually remember to bring my reusable bags.

I finished up at Trader Joe's and decided to swing by the mall and run into Barnes and Noble, but only if a parking space readily presented itself. And it did! It was so close to the entrance I actually was afraid to park there, thinking it must be a handicapped spot or something. But it wasn't- I checked. So I ran in to grab some magazines. I decided I was just going to buy a whole bunch of them - whatever I wanted. I got about 5 or six. Yum, I love magazines. Freaking love them. I'll tell you more about them later.

I went to the music section and just felt like buying something I had never heard of. I like to do that from time to time. I saw this one by Eilen Jewell and listened to about 15 seconds of it and decided to get it.

I love new music. I mean finding music that's new to me. In this case, it's both. This just came out in July. I am listening to it right now and I really like it! I have been really into old-timey americana roots music lately. This fits the bill. You can listen to some tracks and read reviews here.

I love going onto amazon and looking up someone that I like, and then following the links to "explore similar items." That's one of the ways I find new music. Another way is going to the library and picking a cd based on the title or album artwork! Believe it or not, that is how I found The Be Good Tanyas and Antony and the Johnsons!

The other cd I bought today is Dub Qawwali - the devotional Sufi vocals of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan layered with reggae and electronica! Many years ago I got Star Rise (in another fit of random cd purchasing) and I love it - so I figure I will love this too.